How NIGH Began?
NIGH is the direct outgrowth of a dream — first shared by three Nightingale scholars — Drs. Barbara Dossey, Louise Selanders and Deva-Marie Beck — when they met for the first time in London, in 1999 — as they prepared to publish new Nightingale research that later became their co-authored textbook Florence Nightingale Today: Healing, Leadership, Global Action.
The composite-photo on the left features — from the top — Dr. Barbara Dossey who has crafted the only nurse-authored biography of Nightingale — The Commemorative Edition Florence Nightingale, Mystic, Visionary, Healer — Dr. Louise Selanders, America's first Nightingale scholar, who still leads annual Nightingale Tours to London and Dr. Deva-Marie Beck — whose doctoral research was the first to document Nightingale's global work and relevance for today's nursing and midwifery practice.
In preparation for the new millennium, these three — who also co-founded NIGH — asked themselves “what would Florence Nightingale have done with email, fax machines and the brand new World-Wide Web?”
To answer this, NIGH’s founders first crafted the Nightingale Declaration for a Healthy World — that has since become an online commitment for at least 22,000 nurses, midwives and concerned citizens from 106 nations — with a 1000 of these leaders signing on behalf of groups totaling more than 3 million people. If you have yet to sign this 'Nightingale Declaration' — you can do so here >>
Seeking to build upon Florence Nightingale’s timeless, universal legacy, NIGH’s mandate has emerged from in-depth studies of her phenomenal life. Beyond her ‘lady of the lamp’ image of devotion during the Crimean War — and then, even beyond her founding of modern secular nursing education — Nightingale’s work contributed greatly to the global health of her time.
NIGH’s founders and current teams — Nightingale scholars, nursing educators, researchers, clinicians, students, community health activists, communicators and strategists working on grassroots-to-global concerns — have seen and are achieving the development of NIGH as an innovative model to understand and experience the value of Florence’s wider accomplishments — her relevance to the 21st century.
Credits: Dr. Dossey from her Archives; Dr. Selanders from Michigan State University Photo Services and Dr. Beck from NIGH's Archives.
The composite-photo on the left features — from the top — Dr. Barbara Dossey who has crafted the only nurse-authored biography of Nightingale — The Commemorative Edition Florence Nightingale, Mystic, Visionary, Healer — Dr. Louise Selanders, America's first Nightingale scholar, who still leads annual Nightingale Tours to London and Dr. Deva-Marie Beck — whose doctoral research was the first to document Nightingale's global work and relevance for today's nursing and midwifery practice.
In preparation for the new millennium, these three — who also co-founded NIGH — asked themselves “what would Florence Nightingale have done with email, fax machines and the brand new World-Wide Web?”
To answer this, NIGH’s founders first crafted the Nightingale Declaration for a Healthy World — that has since become an online commitment for at least 22,000 nurses, midwives and concerned citizens from 106 nations — with a 1000 of these leaders signing on behalf of groups totaling more than 3 million people. If you have yet to sign this 'Nightingale Declaration' — you can do so here >>
Seeking to build upon Florence Nightingale’s timeless, universal legacy, NIGH’s mandate has emerged from in-depth studies of her phenomenal life. Beyond her ‘lady of the lamp’ image of devotion during the Crimean War — and then, even beyond her founding of modern secular nursing education — Nightingale’s work contributed greatly to the global health of her time.
NIGH’s founders and current teams — Nightingale scholars, nursing educators, researchers, clinicians, students, community health activists, communicators and strategists working on grassroots-to-global concerns — have seen and are achieving the development of NIGH as an innovative model to understand and experience the value of Florence’s wider accomplishments — her relevance to the 21st century.
Credits: Dr. Dossey from her Archives; Dr. Selanders from Michigan State University Photo Services and Dr. Beck from NIGH's Archives.
“Women dream til they have no longer the strength to dream — those dreams against
which they so struggle — so honestly, vigorously and conscientiously....yet which are their life.”
Florence Nightingale, 1860